TOOL: Git Sparse Checkout

Git repos are cloned fully. And your disk space goes down the drain in this process (if you're working in a lot of complex projects). What if you need only a set of files from a repo? You can use a client (like the web-based bitbucket) to locate and download (one by one). Or enter Git Sparse Checkout:

Using Git Sparse Checkout

VCS: What is Gitflow? (Introducing GitFlow article)

What is Gitflow? Here's an article (the article) explaining this way of working with Git: Introducing GitFlow
The original blog post can be found at https://nvie.com/ ( https://nvie.com/posts/a-successful-git-branching-model/ ).

Quoting:

"What Is GitFlow?

GitFlow is a branching model for Git, created by Vincent Driessen. It has attracted a lot of attention because it is very well suited to collaboration and scaling the development team. Key benefits include: 

Parallel Development

One of the great things about GitFlow is that it makes parallel development very easy, by isolating new development from finished work. New development (such as features and non-emergency bug fixes) is done in feature branches, and is only merged back into main body of code when the developer(s) is happy that the code is ready for release.

Although interruptions are a BadThing(tm), if you are asked to switch from one task to another, all you need to do is commit your changes and then create a new feature branch for your new task. When that task is done, just checkout your original feature branch and you can continue where you left off.

Collaboration

Feature branches also make it easier for two or more developers to collaborate on the same feature, because each feature branch is a sandbox where the only changes are the changes necessary to get the new feature working. That makes it very easy to see and follow what each collaborator is doing.

Release Staging Area

As new development is completed, it gets merged back into the develop branch, which is a staging area for all completed features that haven’t yet been released. So when the next release is branched off of develop, it will automatically contain all of the new stuff that has been finished.

Support For Emergency Fixes

GitFlow supports hotfix branches - branches made from a tagged release. You can use these to make an emergency change, safe in the knowledge that the hotfix will only contain your emergency fix. There’s no risk that you’ll accidentally merge in new development at the same time."

TOOL: Come on, be a Git!

(no offense intended, and if you're offended, talk to Linus, who thinks he's a funny guy)
So, in order to interact with a Version Control System that someone called Git you have many options. Here are the 3 most common ones:

• Git command line client: https://git-scm.com/ - for command line lovers
• TortoiseGit: https://tortoisegit.org/ - for Project Managers and other "higher level" users

As a 3rd option: Sourcetree is a good client for developers with branching and merging needs (there are setups that require user Atlassian accounts, and others that will not require it): 
Go to the Atlassian web site for the most up to date versions (Atlassian is the company behind JIRA).

Intermission: Git (the slang and the GBCS tool)

As per Wikipedia:
"Git is a mild pejorative with origins in British English for an unpleasant, silly, incompetent, stupid, annoying, senile, elderly or childish person. It is usually an insult, more severe than twit or idiot but less severe than wanker, arsehole or twat.
The word git first appeared in print in 1946, but is undoubtedly older. [citation needed] It is originally an alteration of the word get, dating back to the 14th century.[citation needed] A shortening of beget, get insinuates that the recipient is someone's misbegotten offspring and therefore a bastard. In parts of northern England, Northern Ireland and Scotland get is still used in preference to git; the get form is used in the Beatles song "I'm So Tired". [citation needed]
The word has been ruled by the Speaker of the House of Commons to be unparliamentary language.
The word was used self-deprecatingly by Linus Torvalds in naming the git source control package."
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_(slang)


I also have some (fun) words to say on Git:
The GB smart metering initiative is called Great Britain Companion Specification (GBCS) and there's a well known Portuguese company heavily involved in it (although that is not much publicized). One of the tools was called GFI (Git For Industry) and this is a quote from "Smart Metering for Dummies - CGI" that refers to it, as well as to the unfortunate choice of name.
But if Linus did it, why not other? 

Quoting:
"In an attempt to accelerate development of devices in the absence of a DCC environment, the DCC has commissioned Critical Software to modify a tool previously developed to validate GBCS (the unfortunately named GBCS Interface Testing, or GIT for short). The modified tool, GIT for Industry (GFI) will allow device manufacturers to generate ‘gold standard’ GBCS commands on a ZigBee HAN to which they can connect and test their devices. By the time you read this, the first version of this tool should have been released and we should be well into a series of seven GBCS Test Events organised by the DCC for budding device manufacturers to come along and test out their devices against GIT."

Quoting:
"Parse and Correlate Provider: The Parse and Correlate (P&C) Provider is responsible for
developing the software application used by DCC Users to convert GBCS (the protocol used by the DCC to talk to smart devices) into DUIS (the protocol used by DCC Users to talk to the DCC). P&C also checks that the DSP has done its job correctly when translating critical commands (really important ones) into GBCS (the correlate bit of Parse and Correlate).
This will all make much more sense when you’ve read Chapter 4 (trust me). Critical Software was appointed P&C Provider on 29 April 2014 under a three‐year contract with the option of two one‐year extensions."

The PDF can be found here (requires registration): https://www.cgi-group.co.uk/smart-metering-for-dummies

About GBCS: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/smart-metering-implementation-programme-the-process-to-finalise-the-great-britain-companion-specification

(@2016-10: additional text, quote)

Configuration Management: Version Control System (VCS) and standardized folder structs

To support the CM activities, your company will make available a tool that can be called generically Version Control System (VCS).

Examples of such systems are Git, CVS and SVN (Wikipedia article here and comparison here).

Your QMS could have a Version Control System GBK (INTERNAL) to speed you up.

This guidebook also could be indicating common standard repository structures (per project type) so that when you move from project to project you'll know right away that you'll find meeting minutes in the same (relative) path, e.g. "quality-management\meeting-minutes", code under the "implementation" folder, requirements documentation under the "requirements" folder, and so on.

Folder structures could be different per project type, i.e. software development projects could have a different template used for initial folder strucutre creation than other of another project type (e.g. Services, R&D, etc.)


PS. BTW, are you a git (in VCS terms)? If so, do not complain to me, complain to Linus, Maybe because "He's such a stupid get" - John Lennon (quote from the "I'm so tired" Beatles song).